For my birthday I got a proper, fully featured joystick, one of those gaming implements I still needed. Being a busy bee, however, I haven’t really had a chance to actually play a game with it much.

Flight simulators are probably one of the best games to play with it, and that’s where Crimson Skies comes in – checking off both that and one of the many shoot ’em ups.

Our Thoughts

It’s been interesting to go back and do some flying, considering it’s been so long. This was a nice one to get back into, though, and yes – the joystick really helped.

Crimson Skies feels like it makes its mark early on. Vaguely reminiscent of Thrilling Adventure Hour‘s Amelia Earhart segment, it has the World War II “we can do it” radio play feel to the interactions between the characters on your team. It can feel a bit stereotypical and over the top, but on the whole adds a lot of character and fun to them. They’re the lovable rogues and pirates that you get around, not really bad people, just them doing their own greedy thing.

And it felt good once flying out. Again, the improved controls helped me here, but the game feels like it allows for a lot of freedom. You are encouraged to follow specific missions, getting near goals to explore and dropping people. This is interrupted by enemies that need to be shot down and ground vehicles that need to be destroyed (once by shooting down a bridge, which was quite cool).

That part is where I started struggling. While the flying works quite well, I had trouble lining up my shots and hitting anyone – all planes being a bit too mobile to keep up with.

Final Thoughts

Despite those struggles, the presentation of the game is nice enough that it charmed me early on. The flying is great and the environments are lovely to be around, even despite its relative age.